President Obama notched another big victory as Republicans put off their attempts to stop his immigration order and agreed to fund all of the federal government except Homeland Security through September 2015.

Congressional leaders have reached agreement on a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep most of the federal government funded through next September.

Months of protracted negotiations between Democratic and Republican leaders concluded on Tuesday night, with passage expected in the coming days, according to top aides. Final details of the legislation were still being sorted out and leaders were still mulling whether to approve a stopgap bill to give lawmakers a few more days to pass the final bill and avoid a government shutdown.

Republicans are setting up a fight over President Obama’s immigration executive orders by setting the expiration date for Homeland Security funding for late winter 2015, but the deal also gives Republicans an easy out as they can quietly extend Homeland Security funding when the deadline approaches.

The truth is that this is a massive victory for President Obama. Republicans will only have control over one budget before the 2016 presidential election puts a halt to any controversial congressional activity. Boehner and McConnell won’t shutdown the government in the middle of a presidential election, so it appears that 2015 will another year of budget battles.

President Obama is in a good position as Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate. The government shutdown threat is off the table for most of next year. The president has a coalition of Senate liberals that are willing to uphold his vetoes, and Democrats have an electoral map that tilts in their favor in 2016.

It’s looking like the new Republican congressional majority won’t accomplish much, if anything, next year. Fear of a government shutdown has forced Boehner and McConnell into Obama’s trap.

Republicans may control Congress next year, but President Obama remains the puppet master who is pulling their strings.

Republicans Completely Cave As President Obama Wins Big In Government Funding Deal was written by Jason Easley for PoliticusUSA.

45 Responses to Republicans Completely Cave As President Obama Wins Big In Government Funding Deal

Maxie2014

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 8:09 pm

Show Them Whose Boss!! President Barack Hussein Obama, that’s who

Robert Reed

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 7:52 am

Some of you folks are not to bright. There is language in this bill that guarantees that the American taxpayer will be on the hook for big bank derivative failures. Some of your big guns in the Democratic party are completely against any chipping away at Dodd-Frank, but overall, your party, including the President are in the hip pocket of Wall Street. You know, “the poor get poorer as the rich get richer?!” Congratulations on your victory.

Well I talked about it and what do you expect when the majority of Congress are millionaires. You cant expect somebody who doesn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck to give a rats ass about the peasants

Robert Reed

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 9:45 am

I missed your comments on this. One thing is for sure, the banking lobby is one smooth operation.

Maureen Downs

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 9:03 am

You shouldn’t be insulting other people’s intelligence when writing “to bright”.

It’s “too”.

Robert Reed

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 9:44 am

Was the rest of the spelling correct? to, too, two… got it. Thank-you. More importantly, do you understand the hypocrisy of the Democratic controlled Senate and White House? I’m not hearing a peep from the President concerning this. It must not be of importance to him, or maybe he didn’t read the bill.

Only the mentally challenged (e.g. Robert Reed) couldn’t tell that these 10 poorest states are red states – so much for low-tax, small gov, Reaganomics, superstitious moral BS.

Republicans continue to rape and pillage this country; why ask the rapists if it were a rape?

Robert Reed

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 7:15 am

@DilbertFan… Unlike you, I don’t see the country as Red or Blue. Only when you can transcend the two party system paradigm, can you grasp real truth and meaning.

Auntiegrav

Sat, Dec 13th, 2014 at 6:39 pm

…because the poor work for them to buy their stuff.
If you dropped 1000 people in the middle of a jungle without any contact to the rest of the world, they would figure out how to build their own civilization, however bad, and take care of themselves. As long as the poor keep waiting for the rich or the government to “create jobs” or “pay decent wages”, they will be at the mercy of those in power. The chance to step outside the paradigm and create a new world is right here, right now; but like the American farmer, the poor of all colors have lost the class war and are kept too ignorant or stubborn to form a new union against the lottery provided for them by the rich. The poor are competing only with each other for the bottom of the pile of dead bodies, while the rich stand on top and claim that they are there by Manifest Destiny.
Meanwhile, everyone (rich and poor) is still thinking of life as an extractive process of taking whatever they can get from nature, instead of the rev…

Shiva

Sat, Dec 13th, 2014 at 6:42 pm

There is never a single job created until the people have the money to buy the products. Nothing you do for the wealthy creates jobs. They pay the lowest taxes in years, and most dont pay any.

Dionna Reilly

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 2:17 am

Viir this is extremely misleading it is not a victory if this bill passes this will be the result. Robert Reich
A major showdown has blown up in the Congress over a bill (called the Omnibus Spending Bill) to continue funding the government after tomorrow night (December 11). At the last moment today, Senator McConnell snuck in a provision that would increase by 500% the contribution limit any one donor can give to political parties and its associated committees. It’s bad enough donors can now give $259,200 in in an election cycle. If this bill passes, a single donor will be able to give $1,555,200 in one check. (The bill contains other giveaways – relieving government contractors of the requirement to disclose their political spending, gutting some core provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, cutting funding for the EPA and IRS, and exempting certain activities from Clean Water Act regulations.)
The Republicans aren’t even in charge of Congress yet, and they’re alrea…

Michael Mussington

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 9:31 am

Now THERE is a Black man who knows his place!

JesseWilliams

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 10:09 am

I am not a customer of big banks. I have had one too many bad experience with them, and now I refuse to do business with these greedy and selfish corporations. I have had big account fees, unfair interest rates, and I even feel bamboozled by an “advisor” that I had at a bank in the past.

I am embarrassed to admit this but he sold me a life insurance policy which cost me $325 per month. I thought it was just how much they cost. After doing some research (and it took me 4 years to do this research) I realized that I can get the same coverage from Life Ant or gnworth for about $20 a month. Well this made me extremely angry to say the least. What a waste for 4 years.

Now I use a local bank, have free ATM withdrawals, don’t pay any monthly checking fees, I even earn a small rate of interest in my checking account. I know the employees and a couple managers, and I have never felt happier.

Robert Reed

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 7:23 am

Here’s a fun story….

The Treasury Department is buy survival kits for it’s 3000+ employees. Must be thinking about a “team building exercise camping trip” or something.

For someone who doesn’t see red or blue you sure did linked to a right wing rag. But whatever floats your boat

Robert Reed

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 11:54 am

yeah, but… the Forbes article that I linked previously gave kudos to Elizabeth Warren and other Democrat leaders who were opposed to the Dodd-Frank changes… got to give me a little credit there, maybe? Anyway, if the info about the survival kits is actually valid, it does make one stop and wonder why? Btw, I have double the amount of Cherokee blood surging through my veins as Ms. Warren! I have photos of my ancestors to prove it!!

djchefron

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 12:00 pm

The kits could mean anything. Hell I have a survival kit for weather emergencies etc… What I read what is in the kit I don’t think is for the end of the world, rapture, dogs sleeping with cats, alien invasion scenarios

Shiva

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 12:31 pm

You have no idea how much you have or how much she has. Interesting story. There is a group for Apaches that only people with Apache ancestry can join. They all got their DNA done as a group and it turned out most of them had very little to no apache blood. Not one of the leaders had Apache blood. I suggest you get yours done

Source DNA USA by Bryan Sykes.

Robert Reed

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 2:17 pm

@Shiva.. I believe she claims 3 greats grandparent, mine is a 2 greats grandmother. Just having a little fun with that… I do have a photo of her and her children.. and very strong genealogical records to boot. My family was very poor and lived in the hill country of Eastern Kentucky in the mid to late 1800’s. Was an interesting tale of relocating to find work and the relationships that were formed.

Carlos M. Morales

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 8:10 pm

Obama is their ….DADDY !!!!
And no matter how much they shout, yell stomp their feet ,threaten..etc.
Obama will always ….WIN !!!1

Heubler347

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 8:12 pm

The swill-chefs at Fox News will be hard-pressed to season this conservative defeat so it tastes like victory stew for their teabagger customers. The blowout in 2016 will in large part be caused by conservatives’ despair over their choice of candidates in 2014. They were convinced that taking control of both houses would be the answer to all their perceived concerns, and they’ll soon learn they were sold a bill of goods by their big business overlords. Caveat emptor, chumps.

KWalters

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 11:33 am

They’ll just give their groupies a cool cloth and tell them to be patient until late winter for the re-negotiation of funding for the Dept. of Homeland Security (under which the USCIS resides that handles the immigration issues). They’ll try to placate on that and then offer another cool cloth for them to hang on until September when they’ll try to win enough “battles” to keep them hanging on again until November 2016 and hope like hell they gain more seats because the likelihood of gaining the Presidency is slim. “Patience, my pretties, patience.”

DownriverDem

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 8:46 pm

All right. Now if only the Supremes don’t destroy ObamaCare. So many will be hurt.

Trackdude

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 9:48 pm

I’m sorry to quibble about this, but the Repubs didn’t cave they finally did the job they were elected to do. I’m sick of these people for what they HAVEN’T done for this country.

Michael Murphy

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 3:52 am

Respectfully, I have to disagree. The Republicans, especially in the House, were very firm in their threats to shut down the government during the mid-terms, and especially in their victory dances immediately following. What happened is that they saw the potential political fallout from another shutdown; each preceding shutdown has wrought strong negative reactions from the public, all directed at the Republicans. 2015 will see all of the usual preening and positioning for the primaries, and the right doesn’t want to hand the Democrats any major talking points, which would be sure to happen in the wake of another shutdown. So, after the hangovers wore off following the mid-terms, the strategists sat down and looked at some hard realities, one of the biggest being the risks associated with allowing Rand, Cruz, and the other wingnuts have their way. So, no, this was not the Republicans “doing what they were elected to do”. Just more politics as usual.

MiserableOldFart

Tue, Dec 9th, 2014 at 11:03 pm

The GOP has shown tremendous capacity to do a great deal of damage – more damage than their numbers would indicate. I remember when dubya got selected, the press said he would move to moderation. It never happened and the damage he did will outlive all of us that are old enough to read the article above. Never underestimate the ability of people with no moral scruples to destroy.

Always Curious

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 2:48 am

Is this real life?

Mikeatle

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 4:17 am

“Fear of a government shutdown has forced Boehner and McConnell into Obama’s trap.” That’s an interesting line. Would “Obama’s trap” be the will of the people to see Congress work? Would the trap include Republicans and Democrats learning to compromise and work with one another to do the people’s business? Interesting trap.

Ariela

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 3:19 pm

Are you serious? The Republicans are not interested in “seeing Congress work”. If they were, they would have passed an immigration bill before the president had a chance to do his executive order. They now have control of the House and Senate and now the people who put them there will see, that having so-called control is not going to change anything. They’ll still be the same ‘ole “do nothing Congress” they’ve been in the past 6 years. The president’s “trap” is now they have to work. The president’s “trap” is now they have NO EXCUSES not to push things through. They can’t continue with their plan of destroying this president’s legacy without some backlash in the 2016 presidential election. Do you think the president didn’t calculate this? That’s the president’s “trap”!

Truffleman

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 5:53 am

Hidden in the details are an early Christmas present for Wall Street that undoes part of the Dodd Frank bill that held big banks responsible for their losses in derivative trading(they would be federally insured now) & screws women & children by further slashing funds for programs that benefit them. Hopefully those things will be changed before the final bill is sent to the President.

TigerWonderingWTF

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 12:11 pm

Obama better not sign this piece of crp! The corporations can give more money to the GOP. That’s all they wanted was the Koch bros money..Alec..Citizens United. Obama better VETO this. I’m so pissed at dems for doing anything just to appear they’re working and in process throw us under the bus as the GOP is doing. Whose side are you on for real? Im getting pretty sick of this. But I will still vote Democratic. Because they are not barbaric like the right wing party who cause peoples lives with their abortion activists who kill doctors..NRA who kill folks in theaters, gun crazed nuts with guns, but if the GOP wins the white house ..of course by stealing it..THEY WILL TORTURE AGAIN listen to them..It worked..it worked..Sick bunch of barbaric people on the right. They need to be tortured so they can see what they wrought on a lot of innocent men. Some were bad but lots were not. Bush just locked them up to look good. And they were tortured in Bush’s name. I hope they charge you/cheney

djchefron

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 7:28 am

Maybe the reality of actually governing is finally getting through to these arsonist

“It’s looking like the new Republican congressional majority won’t accomplish much, if anything, next year.”

Considering they haven’t tried to accomplish anything the past 6 years, not much of a statement.

KWalters

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 11:43 am

The ballgame will be different next year. Instead of just the House sending tsunamis of worthless bills to the Senate to plug the pipeline, the entire Congress will send that tsunami on to the President’s desk. They can win points for every veto even if they can’t over-ride any. They’ll say what they’ve been saying all along, that the President is the obstructionist and we have to get more seats in 2016 and the Presidency to be able to “turn this country around.”

djchefron

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 11:52 am

Only the stupid will fall for that and seeing that Americans are stupid you may be right

gsb

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 2:59 pm

Believe your right in the bills being sent to the desk of the Pres. This process will continue until the next election. Which they believe they will win. Blame the Dems and Obama take the white house and rewrite history to their liking. This country is on the fast road to destruction with the rethugs calling the shots. Their plan is NOT for a free democratic country in any sense of the word. Only a Theocratic form is what these people want, one where the old biblical standards are the ones acceptable.

Cinque

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 1:37 pm

Aren’t they planning to repeal Obamacare?

djchefron

Wed, Dec 10th, 2014 at 2:11 pm

Democratic votes may not be there to bail Boehner out on spending bill
Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who leads House Democrats, said Wednesday afternoon that she is “deeply troubled” by several extraneous pieces in the legislation, including changing of Wall Street regulatory law and the loosening of campaign finance laws. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a leading House Democrat from Maryland, said he would vote against the bill. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is also opposed.http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/house-gop-budget-deal-113462.html

KarenJ503

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 6:40 pm

Politico has become another RWNJ haven for the most disgusting dittohead trolls. It’s useless to put in a comment correcting misinformation — namely, whether there’s truth in Boehner’s claim that the Wall Street add-on in the Omnibus Bill was a bipartisan agreement — in a Politico article because one gets attacked by about 20 seemingly full-time anklebiters.

djchefron

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 6:44 pm

Well there is some truth to the orange one comment that it was bi-partisan if you count Sen. Charles Schumer as being bi-partisan. You do know he is the democratic lapdog for wall street?

djchefron

Thu, Dec 11th, 2014 at 1:20 pm

Obama’s immigration actions insulated from GOP budget maneuvers
Immigration advocates may be the big winners in the budget showdown and President Obama helped put them there. Whether the $1.1 trillion budget bill passes or doesn’t, Obama’s executive actions on immigration appear to be bulletproof—something Republicans are finally starting to accept.

The budget bill will fund all agencies through September of next year, except the Department of Homeland Security. Its funding ends Feb. 27, (queue evil music …) and that’s when the GOP hopes to exact its revenge.

Don’t pop the corks yet
Looks like the red states suing President Obama over his immigration action have gotten the judge they wanted for an injunction that could wreck the entire plan.
Legal experts say the lawsuit is flawed on questions of “standing,” which requires proof of a tangible injury to the suing party; and on the merits, where longstanding legal precedent grants the executive branch a huge amount of discretion when it comes to enforcing immigration laws.

But in a calculated move, the Republicans landed the case before their dream judge: Andrew S. Hanen of Texas, appointed by George H.W. Bush. Hanen has fiercely criticized the Obama administration where it has shown mercy on immigration enforcement. In a December 2013 order, he said the Department of Homeland Security “assisted” a criminal conspiracy by failing to prosecute or deport the smuggler of a 10-year-old girl brought into the United States illegally.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-lawsuit-stop-obama-immigration-actions

Just a reminder. Elections have consequences

Albert Darmo

Tue, Dec 16th, 2014 at 6:47 pm

I wish more people could understand the message Mr Read is giving us. the big banks can gamble in derivatives. and still be protected by the taxpayers money [government}… if they lose billions. if they make money they keep it. a real mafia deal..